How to Track Shipments with Machship: A Complete Guide for Australian Businesses

Tracking a shipment shouldn't require logging into three different carrier portals, copying a tracking number, and still ending up with a status that says "In Transit" four days after it was supposed to arrive. But for many Australian businesses shipping across multiple carriers, that's exactly what happens every day.

Managing freight this way doesn't just waste time - it means delayed shipments go unnoticed until a customer complains, and your team is always one step behind the problem rather than ahead of it. At any meaningful order volume, it's not sustainable.

In this guide, we'll walk you through what Machship is, how shipment tracking works inside the platform, and how Web Ninja connects your ecommerce store directly to Machship so your team has real-time visibility over every consignment without the manual legwork.

What Is Machship and Why Are Australian Businesses Using It?

Machship is an Australian cloud-based freight management platform that lets businesses manage shipments across multiple carriers from a single dashboard. Instead of logging into Australia Post, StarTrack, TNT, and Toll separately, Machship centralises everything - quoting, booking, tracking, and invoice reconciliation - in one place.

More than 10,000 Australian businesses use Machship to process over 1.5 million consignments per month. It's used by wholesalers, retailers, third-party logistics providers (3PLs), and manufacturers who need multi-carrier flexibility without the administrative overhead of managing each carrier relationship separately.

For businesses connected to Web Ninja's platform, Machship integrates directly with your B2B webstore or ecommerce site - meaning orders placed online can automatically generate a consignment in Machship without anyone manually re-entering the details.

Why Shipment Tracking Breaks Down Without a Central System

Most shipping problems aren't caused by the carriers themselves - they're caused by the gap between your order management system and your freight management system. When those two things aren't connected, tracking becomes reactive rather than proactive.

Common signs your tracking process needs improvement:

• Your team spends time each day manually looking up tracking numbers across multiple carrier portals
• Customers contact you for tracking updates before you have them yourself
• Delayed or lost shipments aren't flagged until a customer complains
• You can't easily tell which carrier is performing well and which is causing delays
• Your warehouse team and customer service team have different views of what's been dispatched

If more than two of these apply to your business, a centralised freight management platform like Machship - connected directly to your order system - will save your team significant time and prevent customer complaints before they happen.

How to Track Shipments in Machship: Step by Step

Once your Machship account is set up and connected to your ecommerce or order management system, tracking a shipment is straightforward. Here's how it works:

1. Log in to your Machship dashboard. Your active consignments will be listed on the main screen with their current status.
2. Search for a specific consignment by reference number, customer name, or tracking number. You can also filter by carrier, date range, or delivery status.
3. Click on any consignment to see its full tracking history - every scan event the carrier has recorded, including pickup, depot processing, and out-for-delivery status.
4. Check the exceptions view for shipments that appear stuck or haven't been updated in an unusual amount of time. Machship surfaces these automatically so your team can investigate proactively rather than waiting for a customer complaint.
5. Use the reporting tools to pull carrier performance data - on-time delivery rates, average transit times by carrier and lane - so you can make informed decisions about which carriers to use for which routes.

For businesses using Web Ninja's Machship integration, consignment creation happens automatically when an order is fulfilled in your webstore - so by the time your warehouse team has printed the label, the tracking record already exists in Machship.

How Machship Integrates with Your Web Ninja Store

The most common pain point for businesses using Machship alongside an ecommerce platform is having to manually create consignments. Someone on your team is copying delivery addresses, order weights, and item counts from your order system into Machship. That's time-consuming and error-prone.

Web Ninja's Machship integration eliminates this step. Here's what the connected workflow looks like:

• A customer places an order through your Web Ninja B2B webstore or ecommerce site
• The order details - including delivery address, product weights, and any special handling requirements - are automatically passed to Machship
• Machship generates a consignment, selects the appropriate carrier based on your pre-configured rules, and produces a shipping label
• Tracking information is pushed back to your Web Ninja order record so your team and your customer can see it without leaving your platform
• Any carrier updates - pickup confirmation, in-transit scans, delivery confirmation - flow back into the consignment record automatically

The result is a complete, auditable shipping record linked directly to the original order - with no manual data entry at any step.

When to Get Help with Your Machship Setup

Machship is relatively intuitive once it's configured, but getting the initial setup right - particularly the integration with your ecommerce platform - requires some technical work. Consider getting specialist help if:

• You're setting up Machship for the first time and want the integration with your Web Ninja store or ERP done correctly from day one
• Your carrier rules are complex (e.g., different carriers for different product types, weight ranges, or delivery zones)
• You're currently creating consignments manually and want to automate the process
• You're getting tracking errors or consignment failures you can't trace back to a root cause
• You want to set up automated customer notifications when shipments are dispatched or delivered

Web Ninja's team has built Machship integrations for Australian distributors and wholesalers across a range of industries. If you're unsure whether your current setup is working as efficiently as it could be, it's worth a conversation.

Machship Tracking Best Practices for Australian Businesses

• Set up carrier performance alerts so you're notified when a carrier's on-time rate drops below your threshold
• Use Machship's invoice reconciliation feature to catch carrier overcharges - this alone often pays for the platform subscription
• Configure exception rules so delayed or unscanned consignments are flagged automatically rather than discovered reactively
• Review carrier transit time data quarterly and adjust your carrier selection rules accordingly
• For high-value or time-sensitive shipments, use Machship's manual carrier override to ensure the right carrier is selected regardless of your default rules

Start Tracking Smarter with Machship

For Australian businesses shipping across multiple carriers, Machship provides the visibility and control that single-carrier portals simply can't offer. When it's connected directly to your Web Ninja ecommerce platform or B2B webstore, you get a fully automated consignment process - from order placed to delivery confirmed - without a single manual step.

If you're currently managing shipments across multiple carrier portals, or if your team is spending hours each week on manual consignment creation, Machship is worth looking at seriously. And if you want it connected properly to your existing systems from day one, Web Ninja's integration team can help.

Ready to simplify your freight operations? Summon a Ninja to find out how Web Ninja connects with Machship.

Frequently Asked Questions

What carriers does Machship support in Australia?

Machship integrates with hundreds of Australian freight carriers including Australia Post, StarTrack, TNT, Toll, Sendle, and many regional carriers. The platform lets you compare rates and transit times across carriers in real time before booking.

Is Machship suitable for small businesses?

Yes - Machship works for businesses of all sizes, from small ecommerce operators to large distributors processing thousands of consignments per month. Pricing scales with volume.

Can Machship send tracking notifications to my customers automatically?

Yes. Machship supports automated customer notifications at key tracking milestones. These can be configured to send from your brand email address.

How does Web Ninja connect to Machship?

Web Ninja integrates with Machship via API. When an order is fulfilled in your Web Ninja webstore, the order data is automatically pushed to Machship to create a consignment. Tracking data flows back into your order record in real time.

What happens if a consignment fails to sync between Web Ninja and Machship?

Web Ninja's Machship integration includes error handling and alerting. If a sync fails, your team is notified so the issue can be resolved before the shipment is delayed.